Braider carrier



April 14, 1959 G. SABULA BRAIDER CARRIER Filed June 10 1958 a 2f N Q A ZQ United States Patent BRAIDER CARRIER George Sabula, Riverside, R.I.,assignor to John W. ColliernCo Inc., a corporation of Rhode IslandApplication June 10, 1958, Serial No. 741,131

3 Claims. (Cl. 87-56) This invention relates to carriers for braidingmachines, more particularly to a carrier of the type disclosed in PatentNo. 2,211,730 issued August 13, 1940, to R. V. Olson.

A carrier of the type above referred to has a vertical reciprocatingmember generally called a stop acting in a bight of the yarn between thesupply bobbin and the lead-01f eye of the carrier. The stop is mountedon a first vertical upright about which is arranged a relativelylightweight tension spring, the lower end of which engages the stop. Alatch actuating lift is slidably mounted on a second upright,paralleling the first upright, and is spring biased into engagementagainst said stop. Upward movement of the stop actuates the latch whichin turn releases the supply bobbin for rotation so that a length of yarnis delivered in the known manner as required during the braidingoperation. The upper end of the uprights are bridged by a link which isslidably mounted on the second upright and extends into engagement withthe first upright and there serves as a stationary held abutment for theupper end of the said spring encircling the first upright.

The link is generally held in position by a downward acting springpressure against which the link may be moved upwardly to free the end ofthe first upright and allow removal and replacement of the tensionspring as required for different braiding operation. The link is subjectto much abuse during the operation of the braiding machine andoftentimes a link will become disengaged from the uprights which iscaused by the whipping action of the uprights. As a direct result of theabuse of the carrier, the uprights tend to move relative to each otherand the link wears the slidably engaged upright. Rust often develops atthis wear point and oftentimes it is impossible to remove a link.

An object of the invention is to improve generally on the type of linkabove mentioned.

Another object of the invention is to provide a link which will beconstructed so as to be held on the uprights by frictional engagementtherewith.

A more specific object of the invention is to manufacture the above linkof a plastic material with an opening therethrough of a size to grip atleast one of the above uprights through the tendency of the plasticmaterial to recover to initial condition.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certainnovel features of construction as will be more fully described andparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of a fragmentary portion of a braidercarrier embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the connecting link;

Figure 3 is a sectional view of the upper portion of Figure 1 shown onan enlarged scale; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a modified form of the connectinglink.

2,881,653 Patented Apr. 14, 1959 ICC other. The upright 12 is longerthan the upright 11 and carries at the upper end thereof a lead off yarnguide or eye 13 from which a yarn Y is led to the'braiding location. Ayarn tensioning traveler 14 which is generally referred to as a stop byworkers in the art since it additionally functions to actuate the stopmotion of the machine is mounted for reciprocation on upright 11 and.

has oppositely disposed arms 15 which straddle upright 12 and retain thestop in proper alignment on upright 11. A yarn guide 16 is carried bythe stop and engages in- -a bight of the yarn Y between a supply bobbinand'the lead off eye 13. The stop 14 is provided to take up slack in theyarn during movement of the carrier from the outer portion of thecarrier track to the inner portion thereof, and to pay outyarn with themovement of the carrier toward the outer portion of said track duringwhich time yarn is drawn from the supply bobbin.

The let-off of yarn from the supply bobbin is controlled -by a latchlift 17 which is slidably mounted on upright 12 by a portion 18 whichencircles the upright and is normally at a location above the said arms15 and in the path thereof to be engaged thereby and moved therewithagainst the pressure of a coiled spring 19 during the upwardly movementof the stop. The spring 19 encircles the upright 12 and the lower end ofthe spring abuts against portion 18. The upper end of the spring engagesagainst a yarn guide eye 20 which is fixed to upright 12 and to whichthe yarn is led from the supply bobbin.

The weight of the stop 14 is supplemented by spring pressure supplied bya relatively long, lightweight coil compression spring 21 whichencircles the upright or tension spring rod 11. The lower end of thetension spring 21 engages the stop and the upper end engages an abutment22 or link which is the subject of the present invention.

The link 22 bridges the upper portion of the uprights 11 and 12 so as tomaintain the same in parallelism. The link 22 comprises a generallyrectangular block of a plastic material, such as nylon, which has atendency to recover to normal shape upon being deformed. The link 22 isslidably mounted on upright 12 by means of an opening 24 therethroughthrough which the upright 12 extends. The opening 24 is made of a sizeslightly larger than the diameter of the upright so as to provide a nicesliding engagement with the upright. A second opening 25 through thelink is adapted to be inserted on the upper end portion of upright 11.The opening 25 is made of a size so as to provide substantiallyfrictional engagement on upright 11 to hold the same in position thereonand to allow removal from the upright. Purely by way of example, ifupright 11 has a diameter of 0.156 then opening 25 may have a diameterof from 0.147" to 0.150". When the link 22 is inserted on the upright11, the walls of the opening 25 will be compressed and due to thetendency of the walls to recover or creep to normal size, the link willtighten about the upright 11 with suiiicient friction to hold it againstaxial movement along upright 11 during the normal abuses to which abraider carrier is subjected by the operation of the braiding machine.When the spring 21 requires replacing, the link 22 is moved upwardlyalong upright 12 to disengage the link from upright 11 and then swungaway to allow removal and replacement of the spring. Thereafter the linkis returned into engagement with upright 11.

If a longer bearing surface is desired along upright 12, the link maytake the form shown in Figure 4. In this form the link 22 has an opening24 extending through the thickest portion of the link with thefrictional engaging opening 25 in the thinner portion.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the link 22 is of a verysimple construction consisting of a single block of a synthetic materialpierced With two openings. It will be further apparent that the link isself-held in position on the uprights, thus eliminating clamp screws,coil springs and other elements heretofore employed for mounting andholding the link in proper position.

I have described the link as being preferably made from nylon material,in that I have found nylon to have proven satisfactory in actual usagefor a long period. It is, however, contemplated to employ othersynthetic plastics which are resilient or have the characteristic torecover or creep back to the normal shape.

I claim:

1. In a braider carrier having a first upright, a second uprightextending in parallelism With the first upright, a link extending acrosssaid uprights and being slidably mounted on the first upright and havinga second opening' therethrough extending into frictional engagement withthe second upright, said link being manually disengaged from the secondupright for removal of a spring thereon, said link composed of asynthetic plastic material exhibiting the property of recovery wherebyupon the material about the wall of said second opening being compressedby engagement with the second upright the opening will tend to recoverto original dimensions to tighten said wall about the upright.

2. In a braider carrier as set forth in claim 1 wherein said link isheld against unauthorized movement along said uprights solely by thesaid frictional engagement of the said link with the second upright.

3. In a braider carrier having a first upright, a second uprightextending in parallelism with the first upright, the first upright beinglonger than the other upright, a tension applying member slidablymounted on the second upright, a coil compression spring encircling saidsecond upright and with the lower end of said spring engaging saidtension member, and a link extending across said uprights and slidablymounted on the first upright, said link composed of a plastic materialexhibiting the property of recovery, said link having an openingtherethrough to frictionally engage the second upright and provide anabutment for the upper end of said spring, said link being frictionallyheld on said second upright and manually removably therefrom for removalof the said spring.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,240,488 Benson May 6, 1941

